Source: USAID
ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Thank you, Jim [Hope]. You’re a great person to have in a leadership role, from the standpoint of people in the field, because you have given so much in the field, most recently, of course, in Ukraine. But I think again, at the helm, someone who has all that experience gives our incoming Mission Directors, our long standing Mission Directors, great comfort in knowing you know what they’re going through. And from your time in Ukraine, of course, you know uniquely what Moldova is being subjected to, as well, in the way of Russian interference and a different kind of aggression, to be sure, but but outright aggression as well.
I also want to thank Erin McKee, who told us that her last day was yesterday, but then, was it yesterday? Or was it, yes, it was yesterday but we see her dedication even now, as she’s beaming in to celebrate this milestone with John at home. No more USAID banners behind her. But I think you and I both will just have imprinted, sort of, “USAID” on us – you, especially, having given so much of your career to this incredible Agency. So Erin, thanks for beaming in – really, really grateful.
Grateful as well to have you, Chargé [Daniela] DiPierro with us, and to have your leadership. This is a tough time, of course, in transition, and the leadership of you and the team at such, our transition here in the U.S. kind of coincides, as you said, at a particularly important time in Moldova’s own history. But we are in great, great hands with you as a leader who really gets what this moment represents, and I know will continue to advocate fiercely on behalf of the U.S.-Moldovan partnership, which has thickened in dramatic ways over the last several years, but also on behalf of the Moldovan people and what we can do in support of them.
John, I’m going to get to you here in a second, but I want to give a special welcome to your older brother, David, and David’s wife, Susan, who are here with us on the screen. They have been key supporters of John throughout his career. And of course, I welcome all of John’s family and friends who are tuning in from all over the world. I will reinforce Jim Hope’s plea that you turn your cameras on so that we can all see your faces, bandwidth permitting. But that’s a nice aspect of these virtual occasions where you can actually see people beaming in from all over.
So it is a pleasure today to swear John in as our incoming Mission Director in Moldova. Special thanks to John for accommodating the request to take this, to pick up this post a little bit early. Those of you who know John know that he’s meticulously organized and a person who does really careful planning. So spontaneity is not really, you know, his thing, but that’s how mission driven he is. It’s a sacrifice, but not one he hesitated to take up because he knows what this moment means in Moldova’s trajectory.
Today is my last swearing-in, I think, at USAID, unless something strange happens between now and Monday. And I find it very fitting that it is to swear in our new Mission Director in Moldova, a country that I had never visited before I got into this role, but that has become incredibly important to me as I’ve gotten to know the Moldovan people and the risks that they are taking to secure their democracy, their economy, and their independence. And so, hello to everybody there at the Embassy. Thank you for everything you’ve done. I’ll come back to you toward the end of my remarks about John, but you have just done an incredible job, just truly, making this a very attractive position for someone of John’s fiber and fortitude.
I last swore John in three years ago to become Mission Director in Armenia, so I will try to keep today’s remarks a little more brief, but I do want to share a little more about the remarkable person that John is and why he is the ideal USAID Foreign Service Officer to take the helm of our Moldova Mission at this critical moment.
John grew up in the small town of Patterson, Louisiana. His older brother David reports that John was always a more intellectual sibling, thriving in speech and debate, serving as editor of the yearbook, and graduating tied for class valedictorian. I bet that whoever you tied with is not being sworn in to be a Mission Director someplace, John, so I think you’re I think you’re way ahead in the life competition.
After getting a degree in finance from Louisiana State University and a law degree from Tulane, John began practicing as an attorney and as a mediator. But 15 years in, he found himself hankering, as he phrased it, to spend a little less time arguing with judges and other lawyers, and a little more time making the greatest possible impact on people’s lives.
So John found an opportunity to take on a year of pro bono work in Bulgaria. He trained local legal workers in mediation and legal ethics, he collaborated with Bulgaria’s judicial institutions to shape legislation, and he participated in an independent assessment of judicial reform efforts.
And it turns out that all of his work was funded by USAID. So John was hooked. He saw the power that this Agency could have, and the impact that it could have. He took up a position as a rule of law advisor for USAID/Bulgaria, focusing on democracy and governance, notably assisting the Bulgarian government in adjusting its legal and judicial structures to meet EU standards for the accession that they hoped would follow. And indeed, just two months after John left the country in January 2007, Bulgaria was formally accepted into the EU. This is exactly what Moldova is hoping for itself, John, that same trajectory and quick turnaround. I know it might take a little bit longer, but that is, of course, the path that the Moldova people have chosen for themselves.
John then moved on to Kosovo at a critical moment: the country was declaring its independence. He got the opportunity again to put his legal expertise to helping draft, as you heard, the new country’s constitution. John applied his knowledge to helping the newly independent nation get its legal, judicial and governmental institutions up and running.
John went on to apply his experience in helping nascent governments establish their institutions in South Sudan. Again, John was present at the moment the country declared its independence, and offered up his legal expertise to help the newly liberated republic attempt to transition into stable independence. That has been very challenging, of course, for the country.
John went on to duty tours in Colombia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, all while stepping into increasingly consequential leadership roles. In Bangladesh, where he took up his first post as Deputy Mission Director, one of his greatest professional achievements was overseeing U.S. government assistance to a million Rohingya refugees, a feat made even more challenging because of the pandemic, of course, the COVID pandemic.
In May 2021, John returned to the European continent to take up his first post as Mission Director for USAID Armenia. This was his first Mission Director assignment, and he thrived. He arrived in the country just as Armenia was experiencing a massive moment of opportunity. The people were stepping up to rally for change; to try to build a more representative, transparent, and responsive government; and to try to grow their economy by building productive trade relationships beyond their traditional partners.
Under John’s leadership, USAID has sprung into action to turn that opening, that opportunity, into reality. We welcomed Armenia into our Democracy Delivers Initiative, which Moldova, of course, is also a part of. This is a flagship initiative that supports countries where citizens have pushed for reform, and where the citizens have taken big bets on democracy, and where the reformers need to show that democracy delivers for citizens’ most important needs. In Armenia, we partnered with leaders to strengthen anti-corruption efforts to empower independent journalists and media outlets that can hold the government accountable, to streamline and modernize the provision of government services, to cut down the bureaucracy, and to support economic growth. All told, we have increased our funding to Armenia by 75 percent since the Velvet Revolution, not least because John was such a fierce advocate on behalf of what was happening on the ground there.
In September 2023, over 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled to Armenia from Nagorno-Karabakh. Under John’s leadership, the Armenia Mission quickly redirected $4 million in existing funding to provide urgent surge support to the incoming displaced persons. That work is ongoing, and, of course, incredibly important for people who have suffered so much to get the support they need to integrate, if that is what they choose. This was a period of intense stress and pressure from all sides. John and his team worked early mornings and late nights. They hosted what I’m sure felt like an endless string of high level visits – including for me, twice. They worked with communities across Armenia and the Armenian government to harness limited resources to respond to urgent, critical needs.
Even as John was leading this Mission through a crisis that affected all of our staff in deep, emotional ways, given the suffering of incoming people from Nagorno-Karabakh, John never let go of his humanity. His colleagues remember him as someone who prioritized people and relationships every step of the way. One colleague remembers, “He’s the kind of leader that is detail-focused from the top to the bottom. He thinks of everything from the strategic objectives at a high level to simple matters, like, ‘Do you have enough local currency? Do you need a snack?’” The FSN [Foreign Service National] who offered this reflection on John reflected further, “I’ve been with USAID for 24 years. John is the best of the best.”
When the time came for John to leave Armenia, people rallied in epic fashion to celebrate his contributions. More than 300 people RSVPed yes to his going away party, and even more people showed up. They too came early and stayed late, and they formed a line, which included ministers, Ambassadors and Mission colleagues alike, waiting to take pictures with John. One of John’s closest colleagues remarked, “It was like being with Snoop Dogg.” That is often the analogy that people use when they think of John; they think of Snoop Dogg. But that, in truth, is the rockstar quality that John brought as he worked the room and basked in the deep friendships that he’d built over his nearly four years in Armenia.
Now, John takes on a new and incredibly meaningful assignment. This will be his last assignment in the Foreign Service, as he plans to retire upon its completion. This is a full circle moment for John, who will mark the beginning and end of his Foreign Service career in Eastern Europe. Like Armenia, Moldova is experiencing a moment of tremendous opportunity, taking on absolutely critical democratic reforms like fighting corruption, streamlining bureaucratic processes, and safeguarding free and fair elections. These reforms, unsurprisingly, have brought about massive pushback from Russia, massive interference. We saw this play out in Moldova’s recent last election, as the Kremlin mounted a full-scale campaign of lies and disinformation against President [Maia] Sandu in an effort to oust her and replace her with a pro-Russian autocrat. But Russia did not prevail. The Moldovan people voted for Sandu and made a clear choice for the pro-EU path.
Now is time for us to deepen our partnership still further, and make sure that the Moldovan people see results, and that is exactly what John does best. With John at the helm, we will continue to support Moldova’s extraordinary charge toward democratic reform, transparency, and accountability, especially in the judicial system; energy independence, at a time of such difficulty with getting access to affordable energy; economic growth and reorientation toward Western markets in support of Moldova’s goal of joining the EU. John has spent a career supporting communities around the world in their efforts to determine their own futures, and that is exactly the mission and the support in Moldova today. With John’s deep expertise in this work and this region, and his proven ability to connect with others, to build trust, and to get the job done, there could be no better person to step into this role at this absolutely pivotal inflection point for Moldova.
Now, let me just offer a last aside, John to you, as you get to know people around you at the USAID Moldova Mission: I have gotten to know the Moldovan team better than I have gotten to know most Missions around the world, although I wish I could have visited even more often. But let me just tell you, this team rocks. This is an incredible team of stalwart Foreign Service Nationals who have worked for the Mission for many years, in many cases – although we’ve had to grow our team, taking on so much new programming and so many new initiatives; our Foreign Service officers and others who have joined USAID Mission; but this team together, again, guided by our Foreign Service Nationals, who know the country best and know that these opportunities are so fleeting, these reform openings so fleeting.
They’ve lived the alternative, and they do not want to go back, and they have the commitment, the insight, the hustle, to have secured a profound impact on the ground. So, you know this already – you had an incredible team in Armenia that you got to work with – I am telling you every day working with that team in Moldova is going to be a pleasure and a privilege, and their ambition grows bigger every time I hear from them, and I’m sure that is a spirit and an ambition that you will only seek to inculcate and to expand. So this is a match made in heaven.
I wish you luck, and it is now my great pleasure to swear in John Allelo, as USAID’s Mission Director for Moldova.